The growth of BME faculty is in alignment with the University’s strategic initiative, announced in fall 2012, to grow the College of Engineering over the next five years by as many as 107 new faculty—an increase of 30 percent.

“The additional faculty will enable the School to grow undergraduate and graduate student enrollment, expand the breadth and depth of our research areas of excellence, and create additional research opportunities and collaborations across campus and beyond,” said George Wodicka, professor and head of the Weldon School.

All three faculty members are currently recruiting undergraduate and/or graduate students into their laboratories. For more information, see our Current Research Opportunities page.

Sarah Calve

Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Sarah Calve received her B.S. in materials science and engineering at Cornell University, and earned both an M.S. degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology and a Ph.D. in macromolecular science and engineering from the University of Michigan. Her doctoral thesis was titled “Morphological and Mechanical Characterization of Self-Assembled Tendons and Myotendinous Junctions.”

During her graduate research, she developed a 3D, in vitro model of tendon comprised solely of primary tendon cells and the extracellular matrix they secreted. In order to accurately determine the stress-strain response it was necessary for her to build instrumentation that measured strain optically while simultaneously recording force data. Her postdoctoral research has focused on characterizing the influence of extracellular matrix remodeling during musculoskeletal regeneration and repair. She holds two patents for her muscle and tendon remodeling methods.

Craig Goergen

Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Website: https://engineering.purdue.edu/cvirl/

Craig Goergen received his B.S. in biomedical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in bioengineering from Stanford University. His postdoctoral training in molecular optical imaging at Harvard Medical School focused on cardiac disease and left ventricular remodeling.

His current research interests lie at the interface between engineering and medicine, with a focus on developing and using multiple imaging techniques to better understand cardiovascular disease. By using small animal disease models, his in vivo imaging efforts with ultrasound, magnetic resonance, and fluorescence have quantified disease progression of both abdominal aortic aneurysms and heart attacks. Future work will continue to use translatable multi-modality physiologic and molecular imaging to answer clinically relevant research questions.

Tamara Kinzer-Ursem

Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Website: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ursemlab/Home.html

Tamara Kinzer-Ursem received her B.S. in bioengineering from the University of Toledo and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan.

In both her doctoral and post-doctoral studies in molecular neuroscience, she studied the dynamics of G-protein coupled receptor and Ca2+-dependent protein networks that are important in cellular function. She also engineered neuronal proteins that are functionalized with bioorthogonal reactive groups, and built microarray platforms that enable quantitative, high-throughput biochemical assays. Her research has combined these techniques in the development of technologies that enable high-throughput, quantitative, characterization of protein network regulation. This interdisciplinary research has formed the focus of quantitatively studying the protein signaling networks that form the molecular basis of learning and memory—specifically, the processes that control neuronal synaptic strength.